"Big Buildings and little else"

39th starts off on the East River with an old Con Edison Plant that they're in the works to demolish and replace with high rise condos and commercial spaces. I'm not sure how I feel about this. For one, do we really need more high rise condos? Nobody that I know is looking to spend five grand a month to live in nowhere'sville Murray Hill. But, maybe I'm wrong. Also, these buildings are actually pretty cool and I doubt the new ones will be. But, it will probably stay the middle of nowhere as long as there's just a bunch of old, creepy power buildings and nothing else. It's really a toss up.
The block across 1st Avenue houses a very ritzy apartment building called the New York Tower. It's kind of a de facto banker's building which I will never understand. A woman who lost her job at a big bank jumped out of her apartment in this building in the early 2000's. And, that would be enough for me to pass on wanting to live here. Actually, no, Murray Hill would be enough for me to pass on wanting to live here. All of the blocks leading up to 3rd have really nice apartment buildings and nothing else. Plus, they're surrounded by entrance and exit tunnels to the Queens Midtown tunnel, so there's no aesthetic and nothing to do here but look at traffic. I don't understand why so many people with money would think that this is the spot to live.
At 3rd, there's an old publishing building that now does textbooks, I believe, but used to publish the likes of Edgar Allen Poe and Washington Irving. I'm sure they make a lot more money now but they definitely lost their street cred when they crossed over, in my opinion.
The block at Lex has an interesting mix of commerce, I think. There are two old hotels that have both been acquired by the W. And, an old distillery building that has now been acquired by Jim Beam. I find the very Vanilla W chain being next to the very dirt south Jim Beam really funny. But, I suppose the people working at Jim Beam all come to work with shoes on, etc so there's probably not as much of a war between them as I imagine in my mind. This block used to be the home of a city comptroller, Andrew Green. He is responsible for the New York Library and Met Museum. He was shot to death on this block on his way home. . . .not by a Jim Beam associate.
The next block is getting us into Midtown big commercial space kind of territory. There's a big pharma building, a smaller building dedicated to Jungian psychology and a massive commercial tower with all kinds of different businesses.
There's not much of a neighborhood feel around here though there are an awful lot of places to live. There's no nightlife or local hangouts in the mix. And, there's very little green. It's not a bad street and a lot of people like living here. I just think that if you can afford to live here, why wouldn't you live somewhere else?

"Perfect for young professionals"

E 39 st features a number of buildings that cater towards young professionals. So if you like being in Murray Hill and on a street where people are coming home at all hours of the night this is the place for you. Downfall crossing the tunnel traffic is a little rough